Photo: Ben Davis dodges a defender (Richard Glover)
Although the Magpies Ladies KFS won their match 42 – nil against the Tuggeranong Bushrangers and Magpies Reserve Grade won 36 – 4, First Grade fell to the city team 10 – 30. It was an unfortunate loss after the team’s strong win last week against Gungahlin and Coach Cam Hardy summed it up in one word – disappointing.
“Very disappointing. It was a complete flip of last week, we showed no patience, no urgency, we were just flat.”
“We just didn’t come out of the blocks like we did the week before,” Cam said. “To give the Bushrangers their credit – they’re a very good side that’s for sure.”
“We certainly had our chances and our opportunities, and we just didn’t take them.”
The coach said his side tried to rush plays and mistakes were quite large with only a completion rate of 50 per cent. “As I say to them every week – football sometimes, it’s a pretty simple game.
You’ve just got to complete your sets and tackle and you don’t have to do anything fancy.” But Cam said the team is looking forward to the next round on May 21 against the Queanbeyan Kangaroos with a rest this week during the rep round. Reserve Grade plays at 1:20pm and First Grade at 3pm at the Seears Workwear Oval.
“I guess we knuckle down in training and get ready for the following week,” he said. “We don’t have too much time to dwell on it.”
“We’ll compound a mistake by giving away a penalty and that sort of marches you down the field and if we can cut that out of our game, we’ll compete with anyone in the comp.”
Meanwhile, the Magpies Ladies had a strong defence over the weekend in their own match against the Tuggeranong Bushrangers stepping it up after halftime at 10 – nil and taking it to 46 – nil for the win. Magpies KFS Coach Brendon Housten said it was a good defensive effort to keep the Bushrangers out since the team is a bit short of numbers with only one on the bench for the first 30 minutes of the match.
“We just defended really, really well and then soon as we got the ball back, we were able to score from anywhere.” “We had that one session when we really worked on our line speed and tightening up that middle and saw it in full effect on the field.” “I just want to give the girls a wrap on the defence, it was outstanding,” Brendon said. “I told them to raise it up another level at halftime and they did, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
With two comfortable wins under their belt the Magpies Ladies are off to a strong start to the Katrina Fanning Shield season and are set for a well-earned rest this weekend in a bye.
“We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves, it’s a long season but we’ll be happy about the two [wins] but look forward to the next one.”
Next, the Magpies Ladies face off against the Boomanulla Raiders on May 21 at 1:10pm at the Boomanulla Oval. “We take every team as serious as we can,” the coach said. “So we’ll prepare how we have been and hopefully get another win.”
Brianna O’Rourke
